Ambling back to the boatyard

Westward Around Sweden's Southern Coast

We retraced our steps to return to Hallberg-Rassy and winter storage for Second Wind. Some of our stops were to places we'd already visited this season, but we managed to see a few different ports as well. Here are some of the sights that caught our attention.

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Axel Petersson, also known as Döderhultarn, was an artist known for his flat-plane woodcarvings. His works are on display in an Oskarhamn museum that isn't far from his studio. His subjects were local people and events, life in Sweden in the early twentieth century. The work is witty, yet haunting.

It's pretty common to see rose hips growing wild during the summer in Sweden. Rose hips form the basis of a popular Swedish dessert called rose hip soup. Not only is the dish loaded with Vitamin C, it's apparently a gorgeous red color.

What would you do with an old windmill on a resort island? In Grönhögan, on the island of Öland, you make it into a restaurant. This island, settled about 8000 years ago, still has remains of ancient civilizations, including burial grounds, ringforts, and stone ships. Later, the island was used by Swedish royals as a game preserve.

This apartment building, the Turning Torso, is a signature view of Malmö (locals wryly refer to it as "the skyline") and the tallest building in Scandinavia. It’s nine five-story cubes that turn as they rise. The top cube is at a ninety-degree turn from the bottom cube.

We always enjoy the public art in Scandinavia. Here's a marching band making their way down the pedestrian shopping street from the main square Störtorget in Malmö.

In Gothenburg, we were docked adjacent to a downtown park, whose summer program included an outdoor rock concert. We'd seen commercials all summer advertising this concert, and by the time we heard it, we already knew most of the songs.

The medieval town of Kungälv, north of Gothenburg, was protected by the Bohus fortress. In 1308, this area was the southernmost part of Norway, and the fortress was built to protect Norway from the Swedes. In 700 years and after fourteen sieges, the fortress has never surrendered. Parts of it have disappeared, because during some of its history, the local leaders decided to declare it a stone quarry.

Mollösund is said to be Sweden's oldest fishing village. Here is whitefish drying in the air, on its way to becoming lutefisk, Sweden's winter dish, especially at Christmastime. The dried fish is soaked in several changes of water for five or six days. Then it's soaked in a mixture of cold water and lye. It swells to a size larger than in life, and develops a jelly-like consistency. And it's no longer edible. So it's soaked for another four or six days.